The Lost Pete
by Supervillegirl
Summary: The Warehouse 13 team races against time to save one of their own. Will they rescue him before it's too late? Set after Season 3, "Don't Hate the Player."
1. Chapter 1

The Lost Pete

Chapter One

**Guess what? I'm back! And to commemorate my return to FanFiction, here is my first ever Warehouse 13 story!**

Endless wonder.

That's what lines each of the towering shelves filling the massive warehouse. Each item buried in this vault screamed of it. The aisles practically sparked of this unique supernatural charge. The historic relics and family heirlooms on every shelf emitted a field of mysterious electricity that would build and build until it discharged itself in one big ball along the aisles.

If you peered close enough, you could even recognize a few: John Wilkes Booth's boot, Robin Hood's crossbow, Alfred Hitchcock's showerhead, Elizabeth Bathory's bathtub. Each artifact held its own story and, thus, its own side effect.

In one aisle, you would find George Reeves' eyeglasses. Once worn, they give the wearer the increased eyesight of his character Superman. Unfortunately, they will also cause you to be shot through the head if worn anytime between midnight and seven a.m.

In another aisle, Man Ray's camera lay on the shelf, its recovery and deactivation proving to almost be an agent's undoing.

In another aisle, you would find the Niagara Falls barrel. It allows a person to survive falls from high places. It also gives said person the strong desire to do it again.

It was for these reasons and so much more that each of these artifacts was hunted down and placed in the Warehouse, where it could do no more harm. If properly placed and maintained, that is. Which had prompted the discussion among the agents in the office upstairs.

"It is **so** your turn to flush the Gooery!" Warehouse Agent Myka Bering said with an accusatory finger pointed at her partner.

"Me?" exclaimed Agent Pete Lattimer. "You took a sick day last time! I had to do it! And it puked all over me!"

"I **had** to take that sick day because **you** whammied me with Howard Hughes' cane!" Myka shouted back.

"Hey, I have apologized about that time and time again!" Pete told her. "It was an accident!"

"It's still your turn!" Myka insisted.

"Enough, you two!" their boss Artie Nielsen shouted as he turned in his seat at his desk. "You can both go flush the Gooery!"

"But, Artie—" they began.

"Now!" Artie told them, going back to his computer.

Myka huffed out a sigh as she thumped her hands onto her hips, pursing her lips and jutting her neck sideways a little. She glared at Pete, pointing a finger at him. "This is your fault." She marched towards the door that lead to the rest of the warehouse.

"My fault?" exclaimed Pete, going after her. "If you would have just taken your turn, princess."

"It was never my turn," Myka argued back as they headed out onto the balcony. "You were—"

"Don't start with that," said Pete. "This is the third time in a row that I've…"

Their voices faded away as they headed down the stairs to the warehouse floor.

"Will those two ever get through one day _without_ bickering?" Artie grumbled, putting in his search parameters for a new case.

The door of the umbilicus opened, and Claudia Donovan and Steve Jinks walked in.

"Did we just hear yelling?" asked Claudia.

"Oh, that," Artie brushed off. "That was nothing."

"Where are Pete and Myka?" asked Steve.

"They're the nothing cleaning out the Gooery," Artie told him.

"Oh," said Claudia, jumped over next to Artie's chair. "Got a new case? I could take care of it for you! Senior Agent Claudia Donovan to the rescue!"

"No," said Artie. "Nothing."

"Oh," said Claudia, deflating and plopping down into the other chair at the desk to wait for a ping.

********************************************************************W13*********************************************************

Pete and Myka made their way out of the Gooery, taking their purple gloves off and tossing them in the garbage bin just outside the door.

"Well, that was easy, for once," said Myka.

"Yeah, I know," said Pete. "Usually, one of us breaks something."

"Don't you mean 'you'?" Myka pointed out with a smile.

"Hey, that only happened twice!" Pete defended himself. "Claudia was the one that almost made it explode that one time!"

"Okay, okay, I'll give you that," nodded Myka. "You have never almost blown the Gooery up."

"Thank you, my lady," said Pete with a little bow.

"You are welcome," Myka responded with a chuckle.

They turned down an aisle as they made their way back towards the office.

"Hey, Mykes?" Pete spoke up.

"Yeah?" asked Myka.

"Got any pudding?" asked Pete.

Myka frowned as she gave him an exasperated look. "Why…would I have pudding, Pete?"

Pete shrugged. "Just asking. I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," said Myka.

"Hey, artifact hunting burns a lot of calories," said Pete. "How do you think I stay in such good shape? I mean, you don't just **get** a body like this." He began to pull his shirt up to show her. "You gotta—"

Myka held her hands up. "Pete, I have seen your shirtless before. Please don't."

Pete let the hem of his shirt fall back down to his waist. "You're just jealous."

"Oh, yeah, I'm jealous," said Myka. "That's it."

"Hey, you never know when you won't be able to look again," said Pete.

"I think I'll survive," said Myka.

****************************************************************W13************************************************************

Steve sat at the table by the door, flipping through a book as he waited. Claudia was spinning in her chair, at a loss for something to do. Artie just kept typing away at the computer, searching for stray artifacts.

Claudia spotted a gold statue of a minotaur on the corner of Artie's desk. "Oh! New bling!" She jumped up to reach for it.

"Don't touch!" Artie yelled suddenly, spinning towards her with wide eyes. "That's the idol that buried Atlantis!"

Claudia immediately pulled away from it, frowning at Artie. "Really?"

"Yes," said Artie. "Any human contact triggers it. That's what caused Vesuvius to bury Pompeii in AD 79."

"You're saying this thing is responsible for the destruction of Pompeii?" asked Steve, pointing at the innocent-looking statue.

"**And **the burial of Te Wairoa in the eruption of Mt. Tarawera in 1886, the sinking of Heracleion in AD 7, the burial of Plymouth, Montserrat by the Soufriere Hills volcano in 1995, and the burial of the Greek city Helike in the earthquake and tidal wave of 373 BC," Artie went on.

"Wow…" said Steve, staring in apprehension at the idol.

"It is one of the most destructive artifacts in existence," said Artie. "So, don't…touch."

"If it's so dangerous, why is it still sitting out in the open?" Claudia asked.

"Leena is still trying to find a spot in the dark vault that agrees with it," Artie explained, going back to his computer.

"Agrees with it?" Steve asked, not understanding.

"Yeah, each artifact has to go in a certain spot or it'll act up," Claudia explained. "Believe me, we don't want them acting up."

The alarm on the computer went off, alerting them to an artifact that was acting up."

Artie pulled up the report. "Phoenix, Arizona. Three people have gone missing in the last week." He put a hand to his chin, thinking through his options. "It could be Jimmy Hoffa's ring. Or Amelia Earhart's compass."

"Ooh, ooh, me!" Claudia exclaimed. "This one has me written all over it."

"You still need to write the report from the last one," said Artie. "Go get Myka and Pete. They'll take this one."

Claudia huffed out a sigh. "Fine. Come on, Jinksy." She headed out the door as Steve followed her.

***********************************************************W13********************************************************************

Pete and Myka rounded a corner of a warehouse aisle, apparently still discussing food.

"What about cheesecake?" asked Pete.

Myka shrugged. "I don't know. I've never had much stomach for it."

"What?" Pete exclaimed. "How can you not like cheesecake? It's awesome!"

"Eh," said Myka.

"Well, you have to like pumpkin pie," Pete told her.

"Who doesn't?" said Myka.

Pete clapped a hand to his heart in relief. "Oh, thank God. She's human."

Myka laughed as they took another turn down an aisle.

"Myka! Pete!"

"Is that Claudia?" Myka asked in response to the faint voice.

"Myka!"

"And Steve," said Pete, raising his voice. "Over here! We're in, uh…" He looked around at the shelves of artifacts around them.

Myka rolled her eyes, raising her own voice. "Allentown C!"

"Got it!" Claudia called back.

Myka looked over at Pete. "You are never going to read the manual, are you?"

"Not likely," Pete responded, sitting on a crate in front of the shelves as they waited for their fellow agents to find them.

"So, basically, you're just going to rely on _me_ for all the rules," said Myka.

Pete nodded. "Yep."

Myka sighed.

Pete looked over at one of the artifacts on the shelf: a pen and sheaf of paper. He read the placard next to it. "Stephen King's first draft of _The Shining_. Wonder what **that** was like to snag."

Myka stepped over to the shelf and began reading. "'Induces psychotic behavior, causing a person to kill their family.' Wow."

"You ever wonder if every urban legend, fairy tale and story has an artifact somewhere out there?" asked Pete.

Myka frowned as she turned to him. "What do you mean?"

"You know, Peter Pan, Bloody Mary, Snow White…" Pete rattled off. "The next case we go on could be Sherlock Holmes' pipe, and I wouldn't really be surprised."

"Actually, Sherlock Holmes' violin is in the Westminster aisle," Myka replied off handedly.

Pete jumped to his feet. "No way! Which way is Westminster?" He took off through the aisle.

"Pete!" Myka called, starting to go after him. "Wait! What about—"

At the end of the aisle, Pete collided with Claudia.

"Claudia!" Myka called, rushing towards them.

Pete bounced back from the run-in, hitting the shelf behind him.

"No, no!" Myka exclaimed as she rushed to brace the shelf with the others.

"Whoa!" Claudia exclaimed as they righted the shelf.

A set of blueprints rolled off of the shelf above them and toppled towards the floor.

"Ooh, get it, get it!" Steve told them.

Pete and Myka made a grab for them, but they hit the floor, lighting up and starting to emit a growing hum.

"What's happening?" asked Pete, staring in trepidation at the artifact. "What's it doing?"

Myka quickly looked up at the sign it had fallen from.

_David E. Miller's blueprints…He invented the first electro-magnetic pulse simulator…_

Myka looked back down at the glowing blueprints as the hum grew in pitch, winding up for something. "Take cover!"

"What?" said Pete. "Why?"

Myka turned to throw herself to the floor, and the others took their cue from her. As they darted for cover, a shockwave ripped itself from the blueprints, hitting all of them and throwing them down the aisle.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

**Sorry about the slow update. Getting back into fan fiction is a lot harder than I thought it would be.**

The alarm on the wall beeped frantically, and Artie immediately pulled up the computer alarm. It read: "Artifact Disturbance."

"Oh, no," muttered Artie, quickly pulling out his Farnsworth. Knowing Pete and Myka had left theirs in the office, he tried calling Claudia, but there was no answer. "Dammit."

Artie rushed out of the office down the stairs to the main floor. He hurried along the aisles towards where the computer had indicated. When he rounded the corner of Allentown C, he found everyone on the ground at the other end.

"Myka!" Artie called as he hurried towards them. "Claudia! Pete!" He reached them and started shaking them awake. "What happened?"

Claudia groaned as she came around. "What happened?"

"That's what I asked," said Artie, spotting the rolled-up blueprints on the floor.

"David Miller's blueprints fell off the shelf," Myka explained as she sat up, hand to her head.

Artie rolled his eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you to be careful in the aisles?"

"It was an accident, Artie," said Steve as they all helped each other up.

"Okay, okay, everyone alright?" Artie asked.

There was a chorusing response of yes's.

"Good," said Artie, sighing in relief as he pulled on a pair of purple gloves and picked up the blueprints. "We've got a ping in Phoenix. People going missing." He pulled the rolling stairs over to the shelf and climbed up to the top. "Myka, you and Pete are gonna take this one." He replaced the artifact in its proper place and looked down at them all. "So, you two are gonna go to Phoenix and check into these disappearances…" He frowned as his eyes moved all over the place. "Where's Pete?"

Myka, Claudia and Steve each looked around the aisle, finding nothing but blank floors and empty aisles.

"Pete?" asked Claudia.

There was no response.

"Pete," called Myka.

"Pete!" called Artie, looking around from his high vantage point.

Pete was nowhere to be seen. No matter how loud they yelled or how far they looked, he was just gone.

"Pete!" Myka yelled, starting to panic.

"Did he touch anything?" asked Artie as he hurried down the stairs to them.

"Surprisingly, no," said Myka, trying to calm herself down to find her partner.

"Could the blueprints have affected him?" asked Steve.

"Only if he has a pacemaker," said Artie.

"Well, it was a pretty big blast that threw us all to the floor," speculated Claudia. "Maybe he hit his head and wandered off."

"Why would he wander off without checking on us?" asked Myka.

"Head trauma…" muttered Artie. "He could be confused, maybe even amnesic." He turned back to his agents. "You three split up and search for him. I'll be in the office."

"Doing what?" asked Steve.

"What else?" said Artie. "Searching for Pete. Go."

They all went their separate ways, calling Pete's name as they went.

*****************************************************************W13************************************************

**One hour later…**

Myka headed across the balcony and through the office door, finding Artie and Claudia bent over the computer.

"He's not in Middleton B through Sussex M," Myka told them.

Claudia looked back at her. "And he's not in Sussex N through Westminster C."

Steve came into the office behind Myka. "Didn't find him in Westminster D through Trenton V."

"Any luck?" Myka asked Artie in near desperation as she crossed her arms.

Artie sighed and looked up at them, seemingly avoiding their eyes. "This system can find any Warehouse agent inside the Warehouse."

"And?" asked Myka, wanting Artie to quit skirting around the issue.

Artie looked her in the eye, shaking his head. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" asked Myka, her arms falling to her sides. "What do you mean, nothing? What does that mean, Artie?"

"It means he's not in the Warehouse," Artie explained.

"But we were only out for, what, five minutes?" said Claudia. "He couldn't have left that quickly."

Artie turned to look out the windows into the warehouse aisles, jaw hanging slack.

"What is it?" asked Claudia.

"An artifact…" said Artie.

"What?" said Myka.

"When the shockwave knocked all of you off your feet, he could've hit an artifact," Artie thought out loud. "He could've been thrown back against a shelf and activated an artifact."

"And it, like, sent him somewhere?" asked Myka. "Or-or he's in another dimension like Joshua and the Rheticus compass?"

"I don't know," said Artie, hurrying back to the computer and typing frantically. "We need to catalog every artifact in that aisle and determine which one could have made this happen."

************************************************W13**********************************************************************

His head throbbed as the world came back into focus.

"Ow…" he moaned, putting a hand to his back as he sat up. He opened his eyes, blinking to clear them. "Mykes, what happened?"

There was no response, and as his vision became less blurry, he discovered why: the aisle was empty.

He searched the aisles all around him for any sign of his fellow agents, but the only thing different from before the Pulse Heard 'Round the World was that the blueprints had moved back to the shelf and the rolling stairs were next to it.

"Oh, this can't be good," muttered Pete. He felt in his pockets for his Farnsworth, but found nothing. "Oh, yeah…Left that in Artie's office."

Pete headed in that direction, knowing that if they weren't up there already, that he could call them with his Farnsworth. He made it to the spiral stairs and followed them up to the balcony. As he walked past the windows of the office, he looked inside to see Artie and Claudia by the computers as Myka and Steve stood near the door behind the piano keyboard. Artie was staring out of the windows, looking at him as he passed.

"Oh, thank God," breathed Pete, unconscious relaxing now that he knew they were safe. He walked through the door as the conversation inside the office met his ears.

"…another dimension like Joshua and the Rheticus compass," Myka was saying.

Pete walked up next to Myka, stopping just behind her.

Artie hurried to the computer, typing away frantically. "I don't know. We need to catalog every artifact in that aisle and determine which one could have made this happen."

"Can't we just dowse the whole aisle?" asked Steve. "You know, neutralize them all at once."

"No, no, no," said Artie quickly. "You can't destroy or neutralize that many artifacts at once or the fallout could wipe out half the Warehouse."

"Not to mention, there's no guarantee the artifact will reverse its effects," said Claudia. "Sometimes, depending on the artifact, the neutralizing goo is…well, neutral."

"What happens if we don't fix this soon?" asked Myka, worry all over her face.

"Fix what?" asked Pete, a frown on his face.

Myka jumped nearly a foot off the ground as everyone spun towards him with cries of shock and surprise.

"Whoa, sorry, guys!" chuckled Pete, his hands held up in front of him. "Didn't realize I'd snuck up on you."

"Pete?" asked Myka, staring around the office.

"Yeah," said Pete, heading over to the table by the door. "So, did that artifact cause more damage than we thought?" He grabbed his Farnsworth from the table. "Sorry you couldn't get ahold of me." He held up the Farnsworth, shaking it a little before pocketing it. "Keep forgetting this thing."

"Oh, my God…" breathed Artie, staring at him with wide eyes along with everyone else.

"What?" frowned Pete. "I promise I won't do it again."

"Pete, are you really there?" asked Myka, stepping closer.

"Yeah…" said Pete. "What is wrong with you guys?"

"**We're **fine," said Claudia. "**You**, on the other hand…"

"Me?" asked Pete, looking down at himself. "I'm fine. What…" His voice froze in his throat as his eyes widened. "What the…"

He wasn't there. He knew he was there; he could feel it. But his body just wasn't there. He spotted something out of the corner of his eyes, and he turned his body a little to see his Farnsworth floating in midair. Pete reached down and pulled the Farnsworth out of his back pocket, holding it in front of his face. The Farnsworth was floating in thin air.

Pete looked up at everyone else as their eyes stayed locked on that Farnsworth, the only thing they could see.

"I'm invisible?" asked Pete.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"Awesome!" Pete exclaimed, proceeding to not-so-gently drop his Farnsworth onto the table. "Oh, I'm gonna have fun with this!"

"Pete, could you focus?" Myka told him, trying to follow him with her eyes based on where his voice was coming from.

"Aw, come on, Mykes!" said Pete, walking over towards her. "This is too much fun to be serious!"

"Pete, do you remember which artifact you touched?" Artie asked him.

Pete elected to stay silent as he slowly reached out towards his partner, trying not to make any noise.

"Pete?" Claudia asked as they all frantically looked around the room for anything that was moving on its own.

Pete finally got close enough, poking Myka in her right ribs, where he knew she was ticklish. Not only did Myka jump from the poke out of nowhere, but she also hissed in a great breath at the sensitive touch.

"Dammit, Pete!" Myka shouted as he laughed again.

"Pete!" Artie shouted. "Focus!"

"Yes, sir, boss man," Pete told him, giving him an invisible mock salute.

"Which artifact?" Artie enunciated.

"I didn't _voluntarily_ touch one," Pete said.

"But you might have when you were thrown back?" asked Myka.

"Yeah, probably," said Pete.

Artie turned and typed away at his computer. After a moment, it beeped at him. "I thought so." He hit another key and then hurried towards the door on his way towards the warehouse floor.

"Oh, I hate it when he does that!" Claudia exclaimed as the four agents rushed to follow him.

Pete opted to go last so no one was unknowingly bowling him over. They followed Artie back to the aisle where it all started. Artie headed for the end of the aisle, bending down to a bottom shelf as he pulled out a pair of purple gloves. Slipping them on, he grabbed an artifact and stood to face them.

Pete frowned at the object in Artie's hand. "A bowl?"

Artie held the small wooden bowl carefully in front of him. "Oh, this isn't just a bowl. This is a bowl recovered from the _Susan Constant_. It was one of the three ships that first settled Jamestown in 1607."

"That was the only Jamestown ship that was never found," said Myka.

"Oh, they found it, alright," explained Artie. "It was so decrepit by the time they salvaged it in 1905 that they didn't know which ship it was. All that was left were items like this."

"A bowl from a colonial shipwreck turns people invisible?" Steve asked. "I don't see the connection."

"No, this bowl was refurbished," Artie elaborated. "The colonists tore down an abandoned settlement and reused the wood for a lot of things at Jamestown: tables, chairs, forts, houses…" he held up the bowl, "tableware. There was a specific post on the old fort that many pieces were made from, including this bowl. Every piece was eventually destroyed…except this one."

"Okay, what's so special about the post?" asked Claudia.

Artie smiled, as though letting them in on a big secret—which, given the nature of their work, he probably was. "Only a single word carved into it…Croatoan."

Myka, Claudia and Steve all stared at the artifact in newfound wonder.

"No way…" breathed Myka.

"What's Croa-whatever?" asked Pete.

They all jumped a little, clearly having forgotten their invisible friend was there.

Myka frowned over in the general vicinity of his voice. "Did you not pay _any_ attention in school?"

Pete shrugged, even though no one could see it. "Of course I did!"

"Anything you remember other than what the teacher was wearing?" Claudia muttered with a smirk.

Pete paused for a while, before glaring at her, for all the good that it did. "Shut up."

"Okay, this is getting ridiculous," said Steve. "Isn't there, like, a hat he could wear or something?"

"Oh!" exclaimed Claudia, reaching up and unfastening one of the many buttons on her vest. She held her hand out towards the empty space next to them. "Here."

Pete grabbed the button, pinning it to the front of his shirt.

"Much better," said Artie. "Now, Croatoan…In the year 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh—hired by Queen Elizabeth the First—dispatched a team of 115 colonists to establish a permanent English settlement in North America. Their settlement of choice was Roanoke Island on what today is Chesapeake Bay. The leader John White sailed back to England with the promise of returning with a relief fleet and supplies.

"Having been delayed by the Spanish Armada, sabotage and war, White did not manage to return to the Roanoke Colony until 1590. When he did, he found the place completely deserted. The only thing left behind was the word 'Croatoan' carved into a post of the fort. Being unable to mount a search team, the whereabouts of the Roanoke Colony are a complete mystery to this day. There are some theories: integration with the local tribes, lost at sea, attack. Nothing has ever been proven, which is why they call it 'The Lost Colony.'"

"So, the post absorbed the bad juju leftover from the vanishing colonists, and it now makes people literally vanish," speculated Claudia.

"Looks like," said Artie with a nod at the floating button.

"Well, then, let's goo this sucker!" said Pete.

Artie pulled one of their neutralizing bags out of his pocket.

"But before we do, can I just have a little fun?" pleaded Pete.

"Oh, yeah, sure," nodded Artie. "Don't let a little vanishing off the face of the earth forever spoil your fun!"

Pete frowned. "What, now?"

"This artifact's downside is that if you stay invisible for too long…you face away into nothing," Artie told them.

Pete stared at him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, let's goo it."

Artie opened the bag and held the artifact above it. "Ready?"

Everyone nodded, including the invisible man that no one could see doing it.

_Maybe I should just stop doing that, _Pete thought. _No one can see me, anyway._

Artie dropped the bowl into the bag, and everyone ducked as the sparks flew. Except…there were no sparks. The agents all looked back at the bag before looking over in Pete's direction.

Pete looked down at his still invisible self, the button floating on the front of his shirt. He looked back up at everyone else. "This isn't good…is it?"

**Yes, I know. The chapters are getting slowly shorter. But I'm trying to work on getting them longer. This was just the perfect place to stop the chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

**Is it just me or are my chapters getting shorter? Hmm...**

* * *

The five Warehouse 13 agents stared at the neutralizing bag as it held the wooden bowl.

"I should've known it wouldn't be that easy," Artie grumbled, pulling the bowl back out.

"I thought the bags always work," said Steve.

"They do," said Claudia.

"So, am I gonna fade away or not?" asked Pete.

"Let me try something," said Artie, stepping towards the floating button. "Hold your hand out."

Pete stretched his hand out as Artie held the bowl in front of him. Pete took hold of the bowl as Artie let go, watching the empty air closely for a few moments.

"Damn," Artie breathed, taking the bowl back. "Bifurcated artifact."

"You're kidding me," said Pete. "You bagged and shelved an artifact without getting the other half?"

"It was the only artifact there," said Artie.

"Well, what would be paired with a bowl from colonial times?" asked Steve.

Claudia shrugged. "Spoon? Plate?"

Myka had been staring down at the bowl closely, and she now spoke up, eyes narrowed. "Artie, look."

Artie glanced at her before looking down into the bowl.

Myka pointed into the inside of the bowl. "These scratches…They're only at the bottom of the bowl, like something has been crushed against it."

"Oh, my God…" breathed Artie, eyes widening in realization. "How did I not see that before?"

"It makes sense," nodded Myka.

"Mind sharing with the rest of us?" prompted Steve.

"This isn't just a bowl," explained Myka. "It's a mortar."

Claudia inhaled sharply. "Oh!"

"A mortar shell?" asked Pete.

"No, a mortar," Artie elaborated. "A mortar and pestle. These days, they're used to crush herbs and spices for cooking and such things, but back then, they also used them for pharmacy to crush medications. **That's** the other half of the artifact: the pestle."

"Well, how are we supposed to find that?" asked Claudia. "That's like a needle in a haystack."

"If we can find it," said Myka. "It has to be acting up, first of all. And who knows if it even has the same vanishing effect that the mortar has."

"Phoenix…" Artie breathed out, staring at the floor with wide eyes.

"What?" asked Pete.

"Phoenix!" exclaimed Artie, darting past his agents and hurrying his way down the aisle back towards his office.

"Artie!" called Myka.

"Wow, he really does do that a lot," said Steve before they headed up to the office after him.

They found Artie typing away at his computer.

"What does the Phoenix have to do with the missing artifact?" Pete asked as they all filed in the doorway.

Artie turned to them. "No, not _the_ Phoenix. Phoenix, Arizona."

"The mysterious disappearances," Claudia piped up as she pointed a finger at Artie in recognition.

"Exactly," nodded Artie. "The three people vanished in exactly the same manner as Pete, and the town's residents also report what they claim to be a rise in 'paranormal activity.'"

"Things moving on their own, disembodied voices…" nodded Myka, catching on.

"So, these people touched this pedestal thing and got whammied into invisibility," ventured Pete.

"Pestle, and yes," said Artie. "Myka, Claudia, you two head to Phoenix and find this thing."

"What about me?" asked Pete indignantly.

"Pete, you're invisible," Myka pointed out. "How exactly are you supposed to investigate when no one can _see you_?"

"I can snoop!" Pete said. "I can—"

"Not worth it," said Artie. "You'd only cause trouble like this."

"Hey!" Pete shouted.

"Pete…" said Myka.

Pete shrugged. "Yeah, okay."

"Take the bowl with you," Artie said as he put it in a bag and handed it to Myka. "You'll need to reunite it with its counterpart. Your flight leaves in an hour."

Myka and Claudia headed for the door to the umbilicus, each grabbing their Farnsworths on the way.

"Steve, you and I are gonna work on a way to neutralize this bowl," Artie explained as the girls left. "Maybe there's another artifact to reverse this one's effects."

"Got it," said Steve as he gave a nod.

"Pete, try to stay out of the way," said Artie, turning to his computer and searching the Warehouse's archives. He took the silence behind him as Pete's annoyed acquiescence.

Six hours later, and they had not gotten anywhere. The records did not show anything that could neutralize the artifact besides what they had already tried, and they had nothing on hand that could reverse invisibility. At least, nothing that wouldn't cause an even bigger problem.

"Well, that was our last option," grumbled Artie, turning his chair away from the computer.

Steve looked up from some files over by the table. "Well, how long do we have?"

"Well, from past cases with this artifact, the victims all vanished completely after four days," Artie told him.

"Okay, so…three and a half days left?" said Steve.

"Don't worry, Pete," Artie raised his voice towards the rest of the room. "They're find the artifact."

Silence greeted the statement, and they both looked up from what they were doing.

"Pete?" Artie called, waiting for a response. He looked over at Pete when none came. "Did you hear him leave?"

Steve shook his head. "I'm not sure. I was busy reading the case files."

"I didn't hear him leave," said Artie. "He hasn't said a thing since Myka and Claudia left."

Steve and Artie looked back at each other, eyes widening in realization.

* * *

Myka stared out the windshield at the highway in front of her as she drove. They had been on the road for about half an hour, trying to get to the first victim's home after their five hour flight from South Dakota to Phoenix.

Claudia's Farnsworth began buzzing, and she pulled it out and flipped it open. "What up, G-man?"

"Is he with you?" Artie asked immediately, peering up at them from the Farnsworth's screen.

Myka frowned over at him before returning her gaze to the road. "Who?"

"Pete!" Artie emphasized. "Is he with you?"

"No," said Myka. "Why?"

"We can't find him," said Artie.

"You what?" exclaimed Claudia.

"He hadn't said anything in a while, and then he wouldn't answer us," explained Steve from next to Artie on the screen.

"And the tracking system is no good in his condition," said Artie.

"You don't think he faded out and disappeared already, do you?" said Myka, panic starting to set in.

"Relax, guys," came Pete's voice from the backseat of the rental car. "I'm right here."

Artie leaned towards the screen. "He's there?!"

"Yeah, Artie, I'm here," said Pete.

Artie and Myka both shouted at the same time. "Pete Lattimer, I am going to kill you!"

* * *

**Oh, Pete, what are we going to do with you?**


End file.
